A telephone call process has largely remained the same for years despite tremendous progress in telephony networking technologies and telephony equipment. In a typical telephone call, a caller dials a telephone number of a callee (also named called party, or call recipient), and a voice channel is established between the caller and the callee once the callee picks up the telephone. If the callee does not pick up the telephone, a voice channel is established between the caller and the callee's voice mail when voice mail is enabled. However, there is not a good way for the callee to determine the importance or urgency of an incoming telephone call before the callee picks up the telephone or listens to the voice mail.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a telephone call process known to persons skilled in the art. A caller, caller 102 tries to reach a callee, callee 112. Caller dials the callee's telephone number using caller phone equipment 104 at reference 122. Caller phone equipment 104 then sends callee's number via a signaling channel at reference 124 to caller agent 106. Caller agent 106 then identifies the callee's telephone number and contact a callee agent 108 associated with the callee number. Caller agent 106 and callee agent 108 are switch centers close to the caller/callee locations and responsible for establishing communication with another party on behalf of the caller/callee. Callee agent 108 then calls callee via signaling channel to callee phone equipment 110 at reference 128. Callee agent 108 also informs caller agent 106 that callee 112 is being alerted at reference 130. Callee phone equipment 110 then plays ringtone to alert callee 112 at reference 132. Caller agent 106 confirms that callee 112 has been alerted via a signaling channel at reference 134. Caller phone equipment 104 then play alert tone to caller 102 at reference 136. Afterward, caller 102 waits for callee 112 to answer the call at waiting period for callee to answer the call at reference 140. Note the waiting period 140 is the period after reference 136 and before reference 152. Callee 112 answers callee phone equipment 110 at reference 152. Callee phone equipment 110 sends callee agent 108 a connection message at reference 154. Callee agent 108 acknowledges the call connection message at reference 156, and callee agent 108 sends call a connection message to caller agent 106 at reference 158. Caller agent 106 in turn sends a call connection message to caller phone equipment 104 at reference 160. Caller phone equipment 104 sends caller agent 106 an acknowledgement at reference 162. Then a voice channel between caller 102 and callee 112 is established at reference 180.